Oil for Blood and Blood on My Hands
by Shinsei Tonbo
Summary: Slight cross with AC, nothing plot or character wise, more ability and a lil' character history wise.    The one thing Rome always knew was that Brian was born Crazy. But that may be his crazy ass pops fault, absent as much as he might have been.
1. Oil for Blood and Blood on My Hands

The one thing Rome always knew was that Brian was born Crazy.

It wasn't that he just had nothing to fear for all of the insane stunts he pulls; it's just that Brian _knows._ It's not death that he fears, no; it's not being able to do the crazy ass stunts anymore. He knows what to fear, he knows death is always there, knows his limits and what will happen if one of these things fails.

He just doesn't _care._

Rome watched as Brain danced amongst the sweating beauties in the heat of Miami on a hot August night, their skin glistening from exertion and euphoria from the attention of one of the hottest racers around. Yes, they're beautiful, but Rome knows they'll only hold Brian's attention for only so long before he realizes that they just want to hang off his arm, but they'll never go with him or participate in the things he does.

Taking a gulp of the sweating Corona in his hand Rome thinks back to their childhood. Brian's Family was fucked up; granted his was no better, but Brian's was fucked up in a completely different way.

Brian's Dad was a scary fucker when he was around and his Mom was a meek mouse he figured his pops had just picked up for breedin', but it was what he made Brian learn, and eventually him too when he realized that Brian was showin' him what he was learnin when he was gone. The crazy had been part of Brian's family for years, but it wasn't a good crazy.

Brian's pops was a fuckin' assassin just as his father before him and he was _grooming _him to be the next. Turns out there was an entire brotherhood of them out there, of men and women all killing following a creed to only kill those with their hands in the evil shit and never an innocent.

What the Fuck?

Who encourages their kids to be killers?

It didn't really matter though because even if Brain, and him too now—fuck Brain for teaching him this shit—and damn was it handy in prison, cause they may have made the cut, but they never became part of the damn order, brotherhood, whatever.

The speed and feel or engine parts worked their way deep into their skin and it never left, even when Brian tried to get away from it by being a cop. Man had oil for blood, raised to have blood on his hands and never be a part of the rest of civilized society, what they had been doing lately, that was where _both _of them was more comfortable.

Brian had tried for a while but he was nothing but a bad guy pretending to be a good one, a man who legitimately knew ten ways to kills without out a weapon and twenty with one even if he didn't care to kill if he could help it, and it appeared he'd finally figured out that while he may not be his father, there was no way they could live on what the rest of the world considered the right side.

They'd pull through, Brian got his head back on straight, they had money now and clean slates, all they needed now was to vanish off the radar. They might have to go after Toretto in order for Brian to finally admit to himself the reason he let the man go was that he loved the bald headed brute, he called in some favors to get intel on the guy, of a racer, but then everything could work itself out from there.

They were free now and the world was their oyster, baby.


	2. Scars Still Bleeding Oil

Mia sighed as she finally made it to the top of Harry's shop. Relaxing as she took a seat at the edge and let her legs dangle over the edge, she thought about the higher vantage points Brain had taken her to see during his time amongst them. She understood what and why he had done what he had. Just like she understood that while he and Dom got each other on some level, Dom didn't really understand Brian. Not in the way he thought he did.

They shared the love of the road, yes. But to Dom a quarter mile was his way of reminding him he was free from the cell he spent two years in, the cars were a way to bring him close to their father. To Brian it wasn't just a quarter mile of freedom and memories of his father; to Brian it was freedom from his father, from the fate laid out before him when he never had a choice. Roman and the cars and the speed were all about the life he was never supposed to have, the freedom, and the feelings.

He was supposed to be an assassin, a murderer, another in a long line of them.

Being a cop was supposed to take him as far away from being his father as possible.

Their time together had been both brief and rather meaningless, romantically at least, but they were friends, even after all that had happened, but that was because she knew what he had been trying to do, what he had really been trying to do by being a cop. She remembered the dinner they had and as she divulged stories of her family, blood and not, she witnessed such a wistful forlorn expression crossing his face she could do nothing but ask about it later that night. At least it would have been the first question if it hadn't been for all of his scars.

They had laid there after the sex and as she traced the lines crisscrossing his body he spoke without her even prompting him to, telling stories about the more prominent ones. Learning that a large majority of them were from what his father had taught him, were because of him, when he'd been around broke her heart a little. When she'd asked about what his father did to be so brutal and gone for the majority of his childhood he'd gone quiet.

So quiet; his eyes had a faraway look in them when he'd whispered the truth about his family the fear he'd be like his father eventually reflected in sad blue eyes, the fact that he had dragged his friend, _his brother,_ with him clearly tore him up inside. Her heart had clenched knowing she'd been in bed with a man raised to have nothing but blood covering her hands, fear lancing through her before she could stop it. She knew right away he had felt it with the way he stiffened and then pulled away, a bitter wry smile pulled itself onto his face as he began to get up. She couldn't help but pull him down, the surprise on his face making her heart clench in sadness this time instead of fear, and hold him.

The confusion he radiated made him feel even sadder and she couldn't help but wonder where his mother was throughout all of this but she figured she could have been nothing more than one of those spineless women who did exactly as her husband said. She realized then that Brian was tying his hardest not to be his father, but at the same time he felt more at home amongst them than he did with the police force, proof being how much he told her. The knowledge that he'd been sent undercover to infiltrate her family stung, but that he had told her about that and himself showed how conflicted he was.

They both had known they couldn't tell Dominic outright who and what Brian was, he would never have listened after that but no matter what might have been able to come up with Race Wars had thoroughly destroyed their chances of explaining it in a way that could be dealt with. They were lucky enough that Jessie had lived, if barely—it was still touch and go and would be for a few more months—but he was a live, and Vince had somehow been smuggled out of the hospital by Brian into an obscure hotel room until Dom could get to him before he went on the run himself.

Dom and the others didn't really have to disappear, Brian had taken care of the evidence, but it was better safe than sorry. She really didn't know how to explain to Dom and the others what Brian had done for them and why without them exploding at her first, she'd known before any of them and still so much pain had happened before they could stop it. Brian was family, and so was Rome through him when that got cleared up, but Brian was family now, at least to her. Now all she needed to do was get Dom to realize why he felt so hurt at Brian's supposed betrayal.

Her family would be whole again one way or another; she'd make sure of that.


	3. Obfuscating Our Pain

Jessie rolled his eyes as he took a long draw off his cigarette, trying not to throw his half empty Corona at Vince. The idiot was once again grumbling about the Buster and how could Mia even bother to talk to him; it was getting annoying. But then again, the two had wildly clashing personalities, so he supposed this was all he could hope for before Brian and Vince eventually began to get to know each other.

Vince didn't know one thing about Brian, well that wasn't true, the things he'd said about going to juvie were true, but he didn't understand how Brian felt being with them, here, being family with them. Didn't understand his family life or his past or what it takes to survive growing up the way they did.

It had just been him, Brian, and Mia at home that day and Brian was changing the oil in Mia's Honda while she did homework for her nursing classes.

He wasn't supposed to see them, he was sure, the scars all up down his back and chest and upper arms, and he was pretty sure they disappeared down beneath his pants to his legs as well from the looks of it. It was why Brian had always worn those baggy clothes, they were cool enough that he didn't have take his shirt off in front of others and covered him sufficiently without causing others to ask questions; it was a coping mechanism, something he himself had done once upon a time. He had seen scars like that on his own chest from before he'd run away from his junkie Ma and her abusive boyfriends and met Leon who took him in before they met Dom.

With almost no one home, Brian probably had thought he had gone to the garage with the others, Brian must have felt comfortable enough to take his shirt off because when he had gone out there to offer Brian a drink and tell him lunch was almost ready the man was bare from the waist up. Pale smooth old scars and some raised not yet fully healed scars crisscrossed the slightly tanned back he faced. The contrast between the tanned skin and the light pink scars brought them into stark clarity and Jesse felt an immediate understanding with the man before him. So treating it how he liked his own faded marks treated, he merely snagged Brian's arm and dragged him into the house for lunch, pushing a beer into his hand and chattering about what he was thinking about doing to the supra next.

He could see the taller blonde's confusion but did nothing to dispel it right then, just chattered and ate until he started to talk about how he met Leon and then Dom. Mia watching and listening, too, never having heard the full story before and her heart breaking a little for both of them and the understanding she could see between them both. But there was something else between them now, a camaraderie between two people who had survived their families and grown to be stable, if not productive because they might try but neither of them were good at being on the straight and narrow apparently, members of society.

With the understanding between the two of them there was a shift in how they interacted, something neither of them really noticed until Leon had brought it up when Brian wasn't around and they were together in their shared room. Jessie had normally avoided contact except from Leon and Dom everywhere except the top of his head and that was only when he had a hat on, like a layer of protection from any harm, so him allowing Brian, an outsider to their family, was unexpected. But Leon quickly understood when he shrugged and simply said that Brian knew what it was like growing up, Leon himself having grown up with a, nonviolent at least, alcoholic mother and absentee father. Any tension between Leon and Brian almost visually dissolved at the knowledge and Leon found himself watching the older blond, looking for the tell-tale signs of what Jessie had obscurely hinted at.

After waking up from being shot he could tell that Leon had gone back to his earlier distrust of the elder blond, but Jessie had seen and even felt those scars, saw the lost, floundering look in those ice blue eyes. He may have lied about his job and part of his name, but Brian had been on the up and up.

He wouldn't have destroyed the evidence, give Dom his keys, or killed the Trans if he hadn't; no cop gives up his life like that unless he had a reason too, and they seemed to be Brian's reason. And even if he hadn't made up his own mind that way, asking Mia to tell him about who the real Brian was would have convinced him. Despite all of Vince's grumblings that everything Brian had told her was a lie, Jessie and Mia both knew for what it was and after explaining to Leon just what kind and how many scars the blond had covering his form and the knowledge that they were makeup of any sort he understood too, even if he was still a little pissed.

The long recovery in the ICU and the later PT gave him a lot of time to think about how to explain to Dom why he still wanted Brian there, just like working in the shop and keeping the books for the garage gave Mia time to calm down about their missing friend and contemplate how to tell Dom she'd known about Brian for a while before the Wars. Jessie had known that Mia had tried to convince Dom and the others to not pull the heist, he'd known she knew something was going to happen but the tension was there and to get away from it he'd done his own monumentally stupid thing of that week.

Families fight all the time, they don't always get along perfectly, Jessie and Leon knew this the best out of all of them. They would all get through it, would learn what all Brian O'Connor was keeping from his new family, and hopefully they'd understand why with little explanation. Because explaining to Vince and Letty why he and Leon understood Brian's actions was going to be one of the hardest things any of them would have to do since neither didn't know anything about their family life before the Toretto's and Brian's was so much worse than either of theirs that it made Jessie physically ache to remember some of the marks on Brian's body.

Only time would tell how it all played out, but Jessie doubted his "Car Gods" would let their family fall apart so easily. They may not have been all family by blood, but out of the wanting to be family.

That made them stronger than any other.


	4. Scent of Oil and Need in the Air

Blondie was taking him away; he wasn't even here and he was causing her man to leave her.

It wasn't physically, not yet at least, but emotionally, mentally, when they had sex he wasn't thinking about her curves and dark skin. He was thinking of sun bleached blond and roots of brown and skin, tan for its original color, but so light compared to hers and hard muscles.

So maybe it wasn't just the Blond that was taking Dom from her, they had been slowly separating for months now, but his arrival caused a splintering of their relationship that they couldn't really hide from themselves. Even when they were together, Dom had sometimes gone to others, race bunnies, skanks, but he had always come home to her.

Now he came home, but it was with an ache that only a blonde seemed to be able to fill and she was just not the right shape to fill it up.

Mia, Letty couldn't help but feel, saw it all, took it all in, knew it all, even before it happened. Dom was so mad at her, his own sister knew that Blondie was a cop and she did nothing to tell him, nothing to warn him of the danger he posed for their family. She had fought, and fought hard, for them not to go on that last heist, with good reason, but they had gone anyways and it was her and Blondie that save them, saved Vince. And if the family she had left in the states were telling the truth, Blondie had covered them, destroyed anything that could have tied them to the cars, torched them and left no evidence of even himself behind.

But they knew, the 5-0 and the feds, they knew that it was them, and they had enough they could pin being an accomplice to Blondie, but not enough to convict them.

It burned, because Blondie didn't do it for them, at least not her or Vince or Leon. He did it mostly for Dom, but somehow Mia and Jesse were included in that small little group.

Jesse who still flinched from the brotherly touches Vince tried to lay on any part of him but the top of his head when it was covered by the beanie, let Blondie touch him. It was only passing, glancing touches, like those to the shoulder or on his uncovered scalp, but those were liberties only Leon and, eventually after months of him getting used to his presence, Dom were granted. Mia had even more than those two, being able to brush his hair out of his face or hugging him. Blondie was somewhere in between, not so much motherly but . . . understanding and brotherly, affectionate. Not the same protective ways that Leon and Dom gave him.

It was all so weird, because you could tell Blondie and Mia had been together, at least for a little while, but then she treated him the same as she treated Jesse, gently, as if she was afraid they would be frightened and run away if she did something to rash or even violent in front of them; but even so she was firm and unrelenting, as if she was trying to give them something neither had ever had and wasn't taking no for an answer.

There was something about Blondie she just couldn't quite figure out, he was quiet, filled with nothing but ice and confidence and something feral was chained in his eyes, deep in his mind. She'd watched from her crashed Honda Civic as he jumped from the Supra to the truck and back again with Vince in tow, then when she and Leon pulled up she watched him stare at Dom in the eye as he spoke to dispatch about Vince and his wounds. The feral quality usually so craftily hidden behind the ice was at the forefront, snapping at Dom to say anything, anything at all.

He had just saved Vince he hadn't said a word about the heist or how it happened just that there was an injured male, no name, no nothing. Dom had been so pissed, just reacting to the challenge in those eyes he didn't notice that they were safe unless they didn't do anything about the cars, but then they were gone, Dom leaving the cars as they were with Mia fussing over her injuries in the back seat as Brian was left with Vince, their brother's life in his hands.

And then Jesse was back and he was jittery in fright and then there was Blondie, his hands smudged with soot and gasoline and smelling of burning metal and rubber. There was yelling and the concussion Mia said she had made her head swim and she swears she could feel it in her bones when the Trans' automatics went off and pummeled Jesse, the House, and Jesse's car. And then there were two of her brothers in the hospital and Dom had a dislocated shoulder and his head was weeping cause head wounds bleed like a bitch and they were gunna disappear and her mind was fuzzy. Until a few days later and they were in Baja holed up so that their injuries could heal.

Fear had her slipping out of the shoddy hotel room to call Mia and ask how Vince and Jesse were, because they were her family, all of them, more so than her mother and father and her older, better, girlier sister had ever been. That Vince was fine, and they couldn't link him to the cars that were in the area he'd been found was a relief but that fact that while he was critical and would be in the ICU for a few months, it looked like Jesse had a fighting chance almost made her break down in tears and she chocked on a laugh of joy as they clogged her throat, her concussion's catching up with her is what she says when Mia gently teases her about it, trying to interject some levity to the whole thing.

Her family was splintered, just like her relationship with Dom, all because of the Blond that was a cop and had invaded their lives.

But the knowledge of what could have happened, knowing that Blondie could have been a good cop and gotten all the evidence and could have left the cars as they were so they could lift prints off of them, told her that he was the best thing that could have happened to them.

She still didn't know what to think of the feral blond who covered his true nature with ice. He was part of her family now, through Mia and Jesse; through Dom.

She'll have to go find him and get a real answer out of him, face to face, no Dom or Mia or Vince crowding her so she isn't alone with him.

She needed to know if she read the want in his eyes correctly.


	5. Fumes in Our Lungs, Bloods on Our Knuckl

Vince glared at the city lights below him, a Corona clasped loosely in his hands, laying on the back of the beat up Neon he'd managed to buy over their past few months on the run. His arm and the scar from the gunshot wound throbbed in time with his pulse, still tender after _months_ of healing and taking it easy. And the reminders _burned_. It seared through him, his pride, that the Buster, the fuckin' _cop,_ was the one to save his ass, to get him free and clear from the cops before they got to him. He'd had a precious few hours in the hospital where they didn't know who he was and whom he was connected too and then, still high on the good stuff, the buster broke him out without even tipping off the security.

Even if the Buster had saved his ass he had still _lied to them_, lied to their _fuckin' faces_, denying having anything to do with the cops. And the worst of it was, was that they had all fallen for it. And it still pissed him off that Dom had chosen the Buster's side even when he'd told the man his suspicions.

But he also saw the signs—Dom was fuckin' crushin' on the Buster.

He'd known the man since the third grade, learned the way of the engine and how it fuckin' tasted ingrained into him by Dom's Dad for fuck's sake, been side by side since. Had seen him hook up and leave members of both sexes, being wanted for his broad shoulders and talent behind the wheel and in bed, seen the way he'd avoided most male partners after Lompoc. Vince had probably known before Dom and Letty that they weren't gunna last much longer, but he never figured on the breakin' point being a blond _narc_.

It didn't help that he didn't trust the man either though, there was something about the buster, about just _Brian_ in general driving or not, that set his teeth on edge. There was an instability there, in those blue eyes which caught and held Dom's attention so strongly, one that was hidden fairly well, actually. The only reason Vince knew that he could see it was because of his own volatile, unstable nature.

Of course, Vince had long known about his problems, it came from having, what did they call it? ADHD? No that was what Jessie had, ha had the other one, ADD, or something like that, and dyslexia. Neither were exactly common or easily adaptable conditions when they'd all been in school and he'd often been terrorized for it and it'd shaped him into the guy he was to day. Aggressive, though he often tried to think of himself as protective, and often ill-tempered. Like a pit bull with a stranger in their territory, wary and willing to bite before being bitten to protect what was his.

But the Buster . . . he was one of those Passive guys, the ones who let shit slide until you hit the wrong topic or they just can't take it anymore and then when you least expect it you have a _maniac_ on your hands with no control and the uncertainty of whether you're gunna come outta this alive or not. He lets glimpses of it out, just enough to show everyone else that he does react, but everything else is tucked neatly away behind that frozen layer of ice, hidden and somehow boiling behind there without cracking it. It was terrifying having that rawness, that unpredictability near his family, his home.

He really didn't know if he'd be able to ever really trust him, cause with the way Mia and Jessie were goin' on about it, they were gunna drag the Buster here, gunna drag him _home_ according to Mia, though she'd also been saying something about adding another convict to the family and the confused look on everyone faces but hers just made him more confused. From the sounds of it though it sounds like the person is part of the Buster's family, someone who is as close to him as he was to Dom, but if that were true why was Vince getting that feeling they were unknowingly letting a serial killer and his accomplice in their home just to be slaughtered when they least expect it?


	6. Coalescing

What initially brings Brian back into contact with Mia, Jesse, and Letty is a hysteric phone call from Mia about being harassed by some of the left over vestiges of the Tran family business over the shop. They had been breaking windows and vandalizing other merchandise and property, inter sped with threats. Without Dom there or anyone with enough clout to scare them away, they were becoming both a major hassle and threat to their lives. That was basically all it took to get him and Rome away from Tej's and to LA.

Brian couldn't help it as he felt himself relax as soon as they got there, his arms sliding around Jesse and Mia easily as soon as he saw them. He and Letty had just nodded to each other both acknowledging that the way they had felt about the same man had put them at odds before. Now Letty was free, Dom leaving her to keep her safe and not trusting her to protect herself had finally broken what had been strained between them for too long. She was her own woman and she wasn't going to have her decisions made for her. Despite the wariness Letty still felt around him and Rome, Brian couldn't help feel they had finally come home; even Roman had seemed to easily slip into what of the family was present.

Letty had been skittish around the two of them for a while, even with her numerous disappearing acts, but eventually she warmed up slightly. Brian figured that was the only reason why she asked him about how she would go about talking to the cops when she had been approached by Braga's men. Together they had hashed out a plan. Her cooperation with the Feds for the charges against Dom to be dropped, Brian promised to be with her every step of the way; he wouldn't let them try to run roughshod over her because she was unfamiliar with the law. Surprisingly, Rome became attached to the spite-fire she was and had downright refused to let either of them go into it alone, even if technically they were together.

So the four of them took over the shop and planned, conspiring together with Mia, just in case the Feds tried to back track on their deal. And despite the fact that they were in the garage without the constant supervision they'd had in Miami from the cops, Brian hadn't felt the need to go racing, not the way he had before. Something had settled within in him the others had noticed.

It had taken him until Letty's crash to figure it out.

He was home with family, even if it still wasn't entirely whole.

The last time he'd felt so pissed was when some assholes from their high school had ganged up on Rome, six to one. That time he'd been able to go after them and hurt them and his own body was only a little worse for wear. This time, after he and Rome had pulled her from the wreckage after barely getting her SOS from her damaged cell and brought her to Mia and then the hospital, his body hadn't faired so well. Since Letty was in no state to tell them who had caused it and Brian wasn't one good enough terms nor in the right state of mind to question someone without death happening, he had run. And climbed. And when that wasn't enough, he'd hit.

The objects were random—walls, tool chests, anything that would cause him pain and distract him from this. When he was through beating his knuckles bloody after they had declared her stable in the hospital and that she would recover with minimal, long term effects to her health, Mia had yelled at him.

Her voice was good and strong, louder than his mother's had ever gotten when he did shit like this, but her hands were gentle as she cleaned the wounds. She had understood, from his scars to what little he'd told her of his childhood, she understood that he had to find some way of getting the aggression he felt about one of his getting hurt. And Letty was one of his, just like Rome and the rest of the Toretto family. Dom was the main protector of the group, sure, and he could kill if he had to. But Brian and Rome were the outliers of the group, the ones who had been trained and would kill for them if they had too, it was just how they were. He couldn't help the unrepentant grin he gave her when she told him it was going to hurt while she stitched up the bone deep abrasions on his knuckles.

He knew it was going to hurt, that's what he'd been hoping for.

Through all of this though, none of them had touched on or even thought about what to tell Dom. Jesse had called him as soon as they had been left in the waiting room of the hospital and told him about Letty, none of them sure she would make it, despite the care they had given her before moving to the hospital. Of all of them Jesse had the least experience with wounds and didn't understand her likelihood of survival, it had scared him.

That's why it had surprised Mia when he appeared but not when he cornered her in the garage.

Brian and Rome were to alert to let anyone watch them with out being watched themselves.


	7. This Twisted Chassis

Dom watched them as they went on living, rotating through a schedule for who stayed with Letty. He felt his scalp prickle and his lips tighten as he watched the large unknown black man hung around them and then he felt his fingers curls into fists as Brian loped across the lawn and slapped that unknown man on the back as he left. Brian turned and waved at Mia before he got into another car and Jesse raced out of the house to jump in it too. He was wary of what the presence of Brian and the unknown male meant to his sister, so he waited and when they were gone he slipped from the alley he'd been hiding in and into the garage Mia had gone into minutes prior.

She looked almost the same as when he'd left, her long dark brown hair cascading down her back in waves just like their mother's used to. He watched as she caressed the twisted remains of Letty's Plymouth Road runner and sigh deeply. Her shoulders weren't bent in sorrow so he assumed that nothing horrid had happened in the time that had passed since he got Jesse's call, but the was a tiredness surrounding her, from what he could only guess. He stood there in the shadows of his old home studying her so intently that he almost missed her talking to him.

"His name is Roman Pearce, Brian grew up with him. They're practically brothers like you and Vince. I called them here, well I called Brian. I don't think Rome is going to let Brian go off on his own for a long while, the last time they separated was a huge mistake according to him. Brian ended up as a cop who gave up his badge and destroyed evidence and he ended up in jail for doing stupid shit, so I think they're a package deal. Not that I mind, it's nice almost having a full house again."

She turned and looked him in the eye, still speaking softly, "It's nice to see you again Dom."

He couldn't help striding forward and pulling her into his arms, it felt like a piece of his heart had just slotted back in place. She smelled lightly of flowers and fresh vegetables she had gotten from the farmers market earlier that day. They stood like that for several moments before he pulled away slightly to look at her.

"How'd you know I was there?"

She shook her negatively as she answered, her eyes closed and a slightly bitter smile on her face, "I didn't, Brian and Rome did. You can't sneak up on those two, they're too . . .situationally aware, a product of their childhoods, I suppose you could say, not that either of them had much of one."

He watched as she sighed before she looked back up at him, "That horse has already been beaten enough and I need to let it go. Instead let's talk about how you're here and why you're not in hiding like you should be."

Dom frowned and pulled back to lean against the half finished Charger, rubbing his hand against his scalp as the other felt the smooth contours of his father's car. "Jesse called. Babbled something about her taking advantage of something and making a deal with the Feds and then getting hurt. I wanted to make sure you three were all fine, that Letty was still alive, and figure out what the hell she was thinking."

Mia's eyes softened as she looked at him, nodding at the steel frame he was leaning against, "You know she's not yours anymore right? The Charger . . . it's her way of saying goodbye."

Dom looked at it, the frame had been fixed and all of the twisted dented pieces removed, he could tell she was redoing the engine, fixing what had been crushed and replacing what needed to be. There were more modern parts then when he'd last seen it, Letty had upgraded it as well begun to fix it. It was a goodbye, one hell of one, but the sight of his cross hanging on the rearview made his heart clench slightly, knowing the pain she had to have been when he severed what they'd had for so long.

"I said it first. I think it was something we both knew was coming, even if it did hurt us both."

Mia looked at the Charger with him, thinking about the sister she's had from years of proximity but not blood. She smiled slightly as she thought about who all she considered family; Dom, Vince, Letty, Leon, and Jesse—Brian and Rome. "She's still family. We've always been good at pulling others to us, just like Mom and Dad. You may not think she'll stay, but she will. She doesn't even mind Brian and Rome that much, but that may be because Rome can and will have screaming matches with her. Those two can spit venom with the best of them but its way to weird, and slightly hilarious, to have them yelling at each other one minute then having them trying to kick each other's ass with video games the next."

Dom looked at her, really looked at her a saw something he'd been trying to ignore for the longest of times. Mia, sweet little Mia who used to screech at him and jump on his back and claw at everything she could reach when she was pissed, Mia had grown up. It must have been the distance and only speaking to her briefly on the phone, but he could see the strong woman, just like their mother, she had become. She wasn't going to take any of his shit anymore, wasn't going to let him bully and push out two of the people who had become part of the family while he was gone, even if one of them had betrayed them.

He sighed and in as quiet a voice he could he posed the question he'd been thinking since he saw the two hanging around, "They're not leaving, are they?"

Mia grinned at him in a smile that was all teeth, a challenge to him about going against whom and what she thought was good for her household, "Damn right they're not, Dominic. You may be my brother and you used to run this place but you had to leave, I've become the master, the ruler. If you have anything to say I'll take it into consideration but Brian and Rome are just as much family as Vince and Letty are. They're not leaving unless it's for everyone's own good."

Dom nodded in acquiescence to Mia's statement, knowing he no longer had the right to dictate who was or wasn't part of this family anymore.

Everyone had grown while he was gone. It would take a while to find a balance between them all again.


End file.
